The Committee on Missing Persons in Cyprus (CMP) has expressed its gratitude to the Stelios Philanthropic Foundation and Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou for kindly donating excavating equipment worth 45,000 euro, as contribution in kind.
A press release issued by the Committee said that the equipment will contribute to the intensification of the Committee’s program for locating and identifying the remains of missing individuals bringing to an end the uncertainty which affected families for so many years, a press release by CMP reads.
Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkish troops invaded and occupied 37% of its territory. Since then, the fate of hundreds of people remains unknown.
A Committee on Missing Persons has been established, upon agreement between the leaders of the two communities, with the scope of exhuming, identifying and returning to their relatives the remains of 492 Turkish Cypriots and 1,510 Greek Cypriots, who went missing during the inter-communal fighting of 1963-1964 and in 1974.
The CMP Project on the Exhumation, Identification and Return of Remains of Missing Persons in Cyprus became operational in 2006 and is co-funded by the European Union.
So far, 1,051 missing persons from both communities have been identified.
Also read: Resolving missing persons cases highlighted by President
Source: CNA/KCH/2024
